WASHINGTON, Jan 6: The United States still wants to implement the deal it brokered between President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and is hoping that the new Pakistan People’s Party leadership will honour it, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

Quoting senior US officials and think-tank experts, the report claims that the Bush administration is now pinning its hopes on Asif Ali Zardari and Makhdoom Amin Fahim who replaced Ms Bhutto as the new leaders of her party.

But the newspaper notes that both leaders are weak and may not have the political clout needed to implement such a deal.

The deal, finalised at a meeting between Ms Bhutto and Mr Musharraf in Abu Dhabi in July, sought to ally a military leader with a strong politician with the hope that together they could defeat the extremists threatening US interests in South Asia.

One pillar of this proposed alliance, however, collapsed with Ms Bhutto’s assassination in Rawalpindi on Dec 27, 2007 while the other Mr Musharraf – has weakened considerably since he imposed a state of emergency on Nov 3, 2007.